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Game Sampras

Game SamprasBy A Boston Globe Editorial, 8/27/2003 IT’S ALMOST impossible to visualize the game of professional tennis without Pete Sampras, and a lot of people won’t even try. Sampras defined the sport for the past decade, dominating it since 1990 when he won his first US Open at age 19 — the youngest male player to do so. He went on to take four more US Open titles as well as two Australian Open victories and seven Wimbledon trophies for a total of 14 grand slam championships, more than any other male singles player in the history of the game. Such a giant lingers forever in the heart of the fan and looms over the swinging rackets of all players, top-ranked or rank amateur. Sampras, 32, may have called it a career … Read entire article »

Filed under: Archives 2003 to 2011

A Great One Goes Out in Style

[August 25, 2003 Sally Jenkins] Pete Sampras will leave the game as he played it, a modest, easy, all-time great. You see all kinds of retirements in sports, and most of them are emotionally awkward and difficult to watch. There’s the weeping news conference. There’s the endless, ceremonial you’ll-miss-me tour. There’s the stutter-step retirement, in which the athlete retires only to unretire when he craves attention or needs the money. Almost no one retires well. But Sampras is retiring in graceful self-control. He plans to announce his retirement in a ceremony at the U.S. Open tonight, and a lot of people wonder why Sampras won’t make more of the event, allow himself to be more elaborately feted. The simple answer is that Sampras doesn’t need it. He doesn’t need a … Read entire article »

Filed under: Archives 2003 to 2011

A Legendary Career Comes Full Circle

[August 25, 2003 CHRISTOPHER CLAREY, NY Times] He was never interested in a farewell tour, but Pete Sampras has agreed to a farewell ceremony, and when he walks just a touch self-consciously on court at Arthur Ashe Stadium tonight during the first night session of this year’s United States Open, he will complete the near-perfect circle of his career in the most appropriate place. Pristine, restrained Wimbledon, which he won seven times, was the tournament that defined him, but the polychromatic and cacophonous United States Open was the event where he took his first and last star turns. Sampras, 32, won his first Grand Slam singles title here in 1990 at the age of 19, sweeping aside the best of the old guard (Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe) and the … Read entire article »

Filed under: Archives 2003 to 2011

Sampras: ‘I’m done, 100 percent done’

By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Tennis WriterAugust 25, 2003 NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Sampras kept saying it, over and over, almost as though he wanted to make sure it sounded right: “I’m done, 100 percent done.” The owner of a record 14 Grand Slam singles titles delivered a formal farewell to tennis Monday in a news conference at the U.S. Open, not quite one year since he won the tournament in what turned out to be his final match. He withdrew from tournament after tournament this season, but he never came out and said he would quit. Sampras said he made up his mind after deciding not to play at Wimbledon. “The process is now over. I’m 100 percent retired,” Sampras said, his voice cracking. “I’m at peace with … Read entire article »

Filed under: Archives 2003 to 2011

Pete’s Press Conference [Full transcript]

US OPEN 2003 Press Conference on August 25, 2003 on Pete’s Retirement RANDY WALKER: Welcome, everybody. Pete is going to start with a statement and then we’ll go to the question and answer session. Pete. PETE SAMPRAS: First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming here. I really, really appreciate it. I think you know why we’re here, is to announce my retirement. It’s been quite a process this past year. I know that the process is now over. So I am a hundred percent retired. It brings back a lot of memories, coming back here to the site, being back in New York. I’m looking forward to tonight. You know, I knew once Wimbledon came and went that it was time for me to stop. And I know that … Read entire article »

Filed under: Archives 2003 to 2011

Sampras soars higher than Rocket

[August 24, 2003 Charles Bricker] I do remember, however, being mesmerized by the way Laver moved around the court, as if he was gliding on ice skates — this wonderfully fluid man with the Popeye left forearm who was barred from the Grand Slams for six years because he turned professional before the Open Era. Until Pete Sampras won his seventh Slam at the U.S. Open in 1995, there wasn’t much debate about the best player in the world. It was Laver, who won 11 majors, including all four (the real Grand Slam) in 1962 and 1969, a feat which will never be duplicated. There were those who threw out John McEnroe’s name, and Bjorn Borg — and the odd purist who thought no one could touch Bill Tilden. But Laver was the … Read entire article »

Filed under: Archives 2003 to 2011